Language Therapy
Language therapists lead small groups for Critical Thinking and Language. In Lower School, Critical Thinking topics include linguistic concepts and oral communication two to three times per week.
All Lower School classes have Language one time per week, which might continue teaching linguistic concepts and often includes social communication skills.
In Middle School, a dedicated Language Therapist teaches Language one time per week in a small group. Topics include higher level linguistic concepts, academic language, strategies for Executive Functions, and adolescent social communication.
Occupational Therapy
Students in the youngest classes in the Lower School receive Occupational Therapy in a small group each week. They address fine motor skills as well as behavioral regulation skills. The Occupational Therapist consults with the teachers in the upper classes of the Lower School to address individual needs or develop kinesthetic movements to support learning.
Social Development & Grandstand
Beyond the programmatic elements, students are developing their social-emotional learning throughout their Gateway experience. The School Psychologists teach social-emotional skills and self-advocacy skills in Social Development.
In Lower School, students participate in Community Leadership events, highlighting our community values of Flexibility, Resilience, Cooperation, Empathy, and Creativity. A “Caught Being Kind” bulletin board emphasizes prosocial behaviors. In Middle School, the Student Advisory Council holds events that celebrate the diverse community both in school and in the greater world. Both divisions have Grandstand weekly to solidify their social-emotional development.
A long-standing hallmark of the school’s Social Development Program is Grandstand. Grandstand, an assembly-like experience, brings together Lower School and Middle School students across classes to engage in community building activities such as cooperative games, presentations, and problem solving challenges. Skills such as turn-taking, eye contact, public speaking, following directions, and perspective taking are practiced. While faculty are working to build students’ social skills throughout the day in one-to-one interactions, and psychologists run weekly social development classes in small groups, Grandstand is a time to apply these skills in the larger group setting.
Executive Functions & Study Skills
Direct instruction in Executive Functioning is research-based and emphasizes the use of strategies to become strategic, independent students, who are equipped to realize academic success in mainstream classrooms. The skills are woven into every subject and are key strategic tools for our students as they “learn how to learn.” Our “Aim and Agenda” which begins every class facilitates their attention, organization, and time management. It’s also an opportunity to develop a student’s metacognitive skills so they know not only “what” they learned but “how” they learned it.
Beginning in the Lower School, students learn how to organize and track assignments. As they enter Middle School, students continue developing their executive functions as they have to manage more assignments and a larger volume of work. Using strategies independently is gradually expected. Within classes, executive functions are taught directly. For instance, when taking notes, students learn how to discern the most important information, to organize it, to identify the relevant details, and to paraphrase and summarize information. When outlining, they learn to synthesize information from increasingly complex sources including lectures, textbooks, newspapers, documentaries, interviews, and a variety of informational media. They also learn how to prepare study guides and take tests of various formats.